Page 1257 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
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outrageous indictment of our federal government and their refusal to provide for those in need.
Unlike both the ALP and the coalition, the Australian Greens are taking to the electorate a commitment to raise the rate of JobSeeker to $88 a day so that everyone in this country has enough to live on. This is one part of the solution to this affordability crisis.
Our federal counterparts are also going to the election with a policy to build one million new publicly owned, affordable, high quality and sustainable homes. Building one million new homes will ensure that there is a home for all. These homes will be sustainable, they will be accessible and affordable. The Greens new innovative shared equity ownership scheme will make it easier for people to own their first home where they want to live for $300,000. We will fund it by making billionaires pay their fair share of tax and scrapping handouts to property developers and speculators.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR DAVIS: Thank you, Mr Hanson. Building over 20 years, we will clear the public housing waiting list, make housing more affordable, end homelessness and ensure that everybody in this country has a roof over their head. This policy recognises that we are most certainly in a housing affordability crisis. Regretfully, this is ever so true here in our city.
This is something that this Assembly has agreed on many times since we first sat at the end of 2020. This issue has been building for some time and has been exacerbated by the pandemic. An Anglicare NSW ACT snapshot found that there are now no affordable rentals for people living on income support in our city—literally none. A recent study by Domain reports that Canberra is the most expensive capital city to rent a unit or a house in this country.
The severity of this situation and the impact on our communities is particularly felt by those caring for young children; those far from their families and networks, having fled domestic violence or war; and those living with a disability. The options for people with disability who require modified housing are even more restricted. In the ACT, with Greens in government, we have successfully advocated for the adoption of universal standards in the National Construction Code, meaning that new houses built across Australia will better meet the needs of people with disability and mobility needs.
When you are in a crisis, you do everything you can and you do it all at once. It was former ACT Greens MLA and champion of the crossbench, Caroline Le Couteur, who understood this. Her work led to the adoption of land tax exemptions for landlords participating in a rental affordability scheme. In my years in real estate, prior to my election, I heard regularly from landlords, who do not like land tax.
It needs repeating and underlining in this place that every landlord in this city could get out of land tax tomorrow, were they to take advantage of a scheme established by the Greens to rent their properties at an affordable price. I strongly encourage
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